A sex attacker who raped one woman and assaulted two others has been jailed for nine years.
James Inglis carried out the attacks over a nine-month period at Beauly in Inverness-shire and Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.
At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday a judge told the 34-year-old he had an “abusive and controlling” attitude to women.
Lord Pentland said the rapist had been willing to use violence against his victims in order to gratify his desires.
He told Inglis: “You are assessed as presenting a high risk of committing further sexual and other offences in the future.”
The judge ordered that he be placed under supervision for a further three-year period after his release.
He said: “An extended sentence is, in my view, clearly necessary for the protection of the public from serious harm.”
Inglis, originally from Stornoway, but latterly of Whitworth in Lancashire, had denied committing the offences, but was convicted at an earlier trial.
He raped his first victim, a woman in her early 20s, at an address in Beauly in March 2012.
A second victim, who was in her mid-30s, was targeted at a house in Stornoway after he went into the property uninvited, grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against a door.
He held a knife to her and attempted to remove her clothing and sexually assaulted her.
She told the court: “He grabbed me by the neck. He was just squeezing my neck. I couldn’t breathe. I was getting dizzy. He kicked me in the back.”.
Inglis carried out a further sex attack on a 27-year-old woman at another address in Stornoway in December 2012.
His counsel, Brian McConnachie QC, said: “His position in relation to the offences of which he was convicted remains the same.”
Mr McConnachie said the case involved “three isolated incidents”.
The lawyer said that Inglis, a former operations manager for a catering firm, had gone through a “traumatic childhood” and was later adopted and had experienced racism and social isolation.
“He also appeared to have had his troubles with both alcohol and drugs during his life,” he said.
Mr McConnachie said that Inglis accepted he was going to have to serve “a substantial period of imprisonment”.
Last night, police welcomed the nine-year prison sentence.
Detective Inspector Maggie Miller said: “This was a protracted police investigation carried out by the Highlands and Islands Domestic Abuse Investigation Unit.
“Today represents the culmination of a lengthy investigation which was greatly assisted by Inglis’s victims, all of whom suffered violent abuse at his hands.
“I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the victims who came forward and assisted the police investigation.
“It’s thanks to their bravery that we were able to catalogue his violent history and bring him to justice.
“Police Scotland is determined to break that cycle of abusive behaviour and assist those victims caught within it. Help is available. No one should ever be subjected to domestic abuse in any form.”